Waste Management Panda Software Development

Over the past year we have been developing the Waste Management Panda Software . Developing this application was a lot of fun. However, with software development you have to get into the nitty gritty to see what a company actually needs. I always start out my research looking at other software to see if there is a cheaper alternative for the customer. During my research for this I was surprised at what I found.

Waste Management Software Research

As I was researching software I found that literally no one would give you a price up front. Many of the sites that you go to have a button to click for pricing then you have to fill out a form to schedule an interview. It just really felt shady to me! Most of the software out there you had to download to either a Windows or Mac computer then it ran on the computer itself. I was thinking to myself if I had a garbage collection service and I did not know anything about programming this would be a nightmare.

Limited Software

The other thing that I found is the limitations of the software. Like one would track your trucks but not invoice your customers. One would invoice your customers but not let you add equipment. Ironically there was no software program that did it all.

Our Approach To Software Development Was Different

We like to simplify things because when you get right down to it, nothing is that complicated. Waste Management Companies really only need to track 4 things.

1. People
2. Money
3. Equipment
4. Places

It is with this goal in mind we developed this software. However, as most things do we decided to take it to another level, in fact multiple levels.

Features to Implement Waste Management Panda Software

As we laid the framework out and began testing the software we found that there were many more needs for a Waste Management Company. However, it always referred back to those 4 things. For example in the “People” category we had;

1. Customers
2. Managers
3. Drivers
4. Employees
5. Vendors
6. Mechanics

Money, Equipment and Places also had their own rabbit holes to discover. Let me tell you we went down every rabbit hole and cleaned house in this software. Even to the point where it figures out the employees payroll taxes and additionally has an online time clock for them to clock in and out on.

You can see an exhaustive list on the Waste Management Panda Software website here. It is more than a CRM it is an all encompassing software application for Waste Management Companies and we are so proud of it and had a lot of fun creating it from the ground up.

Getting Involved

Many software developers never leave the desk and their computer. We have a different approach here. We actually join in the company tasks. That’s right, I work right along with employees, managers and drivers. I dive in head first to see what kind of problems we can solve. So for the past year I dove right in with the Haberberger Disposal team. In order to develop the software I had to understand their problems. This means I would have to transform myself into them. So I began my meeting with them, traveling out on their trucks, going to the dump. Additionally I sat in the office for hours just trying to pick up on all the issues. When they discovered a bug in the software I fixed it immediately.

Here is a letter that I wrote to other trash companies to let them know about the software. It is a frank and candid letter on my experience while creating this software and what was requested of us.

Making It Affordable

As with any software application new release we had to make it affordable for other Waste Management and  Garbage Collection companies. To develop software like this costs thousands of dollars because of all the time it requires. So we came up with a strategy, “Make The Software Pay For Itself”. Garbage collection companies by their very nature serve thousands of customers. They can get a local message out faster than the post office! So, within this software customers also have the ability to create an ad for their local business, event or anything else they need for local advertisement. It was a win win solution.

Additionally, the software pays for itself in the sense that you are educated and more informed about your business. You get to see what makes you money and what is costing you money. This gives you the knowledge as a manager to make key decisions within your business.

In Conclusion

In the end we made a great piece of software that levels the playing field for smaller garbage collection companies. Furthermore, we made it an all encompassing application that takes care of everything within the Waste Management business.